




'^^ 



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MEMORIAL 



TO THE 



MEN OF CAMBEIDG 



WHO FELL IN THE 



FIRST BATTLE OF THE REVOLUTIONAKY WAR. 



(P 



Services of Dedication, Nov. 3, 1870. 





CAMBRIDGE : 

PRESS OF JOHN WILSON AND SON. 
1870. 



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Cambridge, 28 Nov., 1870. 

Justin A. Jacobs, Esq., City Clerk: 

My dear Sir, — I acknowledge with pleasure the receipt of 
the vote of the City Government concerning the address delivered 
at their request on the third inst., and beg leave to return my thanks 
for the kind terms in which the address is mentioned. 

In accordance with their request, I have now the honor to fur- 
nish a copy of the address, and to submit it to their disposal. 

I am, yours most truly, 

ALEXANDER McKENZIE. 



In Board of Aldermen, Nov. 30, 1870. 
Referred to Alderman March. Sent down for concurrence. 
Attest: JUSTIN A. JACOBS, City Cleric. 



In Common Council, Dec. 7, 1870. 
Concurred. 

Attest : J. W. COTTON, Clerk. 



O T E. 



npmS Publication embraces a detailed * account of the 
-^ proceedings of the City Government, and those who 
gave their assistance, in providing for the erection and dedi- 
cation of a Monument in honor of those sons of Cambridge 
who fell in defence of the popular cause, on the memorable 
19th of April, 1775, within the territorial limits of the 
town. 

The Monument is placed in the ancient burial-ground, 
in front of the College, upon the spot where the remains 
of three of the patriots were buried. It is of Scotch granite, 
about ten feet in height, and presents a very beautiful and 
substantial appearance. It bears this inscription, prepared 
by the Rev. Alexander McKenzie : 

Erected by the City 

A. D., 1870. 
To the memory o f 

JOHN HICKS, 
WILLIAM MAHCT, 
MOSES RICHARDSON, 
Buried here. 
JASON RUSSELL, 
JABEZ WYMAN, 
JASON WINSHIP, 
Buried in Menotomy. 

MEN OF CAMBRIDGE 

Who fell in defence of the Liberty of the People, 
April 19, 1775. 

" 0, what a glorious morning is this ! " 

The exercises at the dedication were held in the vestry 
of the First Parish Church, overlooking the burial-ground, 
on the 3d of November, 1870, and were attended by a 



6 CAMBRIDGE REVOLUTIONARY MEMORIAL. 

large number of ladies and citizens, notwithstanding the 
unfavorable weather, which prevented the audience from 
assembling upon the ground where the Monument is 
placed. 

The services of dedication consisted of Music by a choir, 
under the direction of George Fisher, Esq. ; and Addresses 
by Hon. H. R. Harding, Mayor of the city, and the Rev. 
Alexander McKenzie ; — Rev. Pliny Wood officiating as 
Chaplain. 

The first official step towards the erection of a Memorial 
to those citizens wlio fell within the limits of the town on 
the day of the battle of Lexington, was taken by Alderman 
Horatio G. Parker, on the 14th of September last, who on 
that day introduced the necessary order to the Board of 
which he was a member. The order was adopted, without 
dissent, by both branches of the Government. 

These proceedings, it is believed, will be regarded as a 
valuable contribution to the history of Cambridge. 

J. S. M. 



ALDERMAN PAEKER'S ADDRESS. 



^N the 14tli September, 1870, Alderman Horatio Gr. 
Parker, of "Ward One, submitted the following order 
to the Board of Aldermen : — 

Ordered, That the Committee on the Soldiers' Monument be 
directed to place a suitable memorial of stone on the Old Burial 
Ground, in Ward One, — over the common grave of citizens of this 
town, who fell on the 19th of April, 1775, — at a cost not exceeding 
five hundred dollars, and that the expense thereof be charged to 
Incidental Expenses. 

Mr. Parker said he had been requested by citizens of 
Cambridge to introduce the order. 

The matter has been freshly brought to the minds 
of our people by the Reverend Alexander McKenzie, 
who, m his recent address at the dedication of our 
Soldiers' Monument, said, — 

" Down this road were brought some of our own 
people who had fallen, and in the hurry and con- 
fusion of the time were thrown into a common trench 
in this graveyard, until a happier day should come 
and they might have a better burial. Tradition as- 
cribes to General Warren, who had himself been 



8 CAMBRIDGE REVOLUTIONARY MEMORIAL. 

within a hair's breadth of death, the promise that these 
fallen patriots should have the care which was due 
them. That day has been long in coming. The 
grave into which they were cast remains here un- 
marked. I trust it will not be thought alien to the 
purpose of this occasion, if I turn aside to ask that 
the administration of your Honor, into which falls the 
renown of this day, will take to itself the further 
privilege of erecting an appropriate ston,e over the 
place where the earlier patriotic dead of Cambridge 
have been waiting so long." 

Those earlier patriotic dead of Cambridge, Mr. 
Mayor, fell April 19, 1775, the day of the battle of 
Lexington. They, in their earnestness to hunt and 
harass the King's troops, got between the British main 
body and flank guard ; and there were shot dead. 

At night, after the British troops had fled, the 
bodies of these men were brought down the West 
Cambridge road, and across our Common to the grave- 
yard, where their terrified and agonized relatives and 
neighbors hastily dug for them a common grave. Into 
that common grave they were thrown, their only 
covering their bloody battle garments. And so they 
were buried. 

It was the first burial of men who fell in arms in 
our eight years' Hevolutionary War ; and the men and 
women who stood by, holding the torches and viewing 
the sad sight, felt keenly and bitterly the want of 
those common methods and furnishings by which we 
endeavor to show our respect and aff"ection for the 
worthy dead. 



CAMBEIDGE REVOLUTIONAEY MEMORIAL. ^ 

General Warren endeavored to comfort those neigh- 
bors, friends, and relatives, by saying to them that the 
troubles of the land would soon be over, peace would 
come, and the proper thing should be done in mem- 
ory and honor of those whom now they must so bury. 
In less than two months. General Warren had himself 
gloriously fallen, in the same manner, in the same 
cause ; and his promise descended with his honors to 
the generations following. 

Nearly one hundred years ago, Mr. Mayor, those 
men fell and were thus buried, and General Warren 
so promised ; and that promise remains unfulfilled, 
that common grave remains unmarked to this day. 

The people of Cambridge desire that this should be 
so no longer. They are eager that this duty of in 
some appropriate way designating and marking that 
common grave of our citizens, who fell on the day of 
the battle of Lexington, should be at once performed. 

Our people recognize in this a patriotic duty too 
long neglected ; and they feel it a pleasure that, while 
they shall discharge this their duty, they shall at the 
same time fulfil the proper and sympathizing promise 
of General Warren. 



DEDICATION. 



November 3, 1870. 



rpHE exercises were opened by the Rev. Pliny Wood, who 
-*- addressed the Throne of Grace in a fervent manner ; 
calling upon the Giver of Good to bless the occasion, that it 
might awaken in every heart the desire to perpetuate the 
memory which clusters around the names of the patriot 
dead, who resisted to their death the efforts of Great Britain 
to place a yoke upon the necks of the people. 

Following the Chaplain, a select choir of ten voices, under 
the direction of George Fisher, Esq., rendered the beautiful 
prayer from " Moses in Egypt." This concluded, Mayor 
Harding addressed the audience. 



REMARKS OF THE HON. H. R. HARDING. 

When, some four months ago, we dedicated the 
Monument which stands on yonder Common, we were 
reminded by the Orator of that day of a duty which 
had long been neglected, but which it was not yet too 
late to perform. He recalled to our memories the 
events of that early period of our history, when re- 
sistance to British oppression began on these shores, 
and when our ancestors first met the enemies of liberty 



12 CAMBRIDGE REVOLUTIONARY MEMORIAL. 

in the deadly contest which ended with the establish- 
ment here of a great Republic. He painted in vivid 
colors the circumstances which preceded and attended 
the first battle of the Revolution : how the midnight 
messengers hurried along these roads, bearing the 
fearful tidings that the troops of King George were 
on the march to pillage, to burn, and to murder ; how 
the drums beat to arms, and the warning bells sum- 
moned patriotic men to the stern duties of the battle- 
field ; how " women clustered together in their agony, 
alarmed for the fate of their husbands and sons, hear- 
ing the distant firing, then looking upon the battle as 
it came nearer, sure that some hearts were to break, 
some homes to be made desolate." He told us, further, 
how some of our own people who had fallen were 
brought down this road — now North Avenue — and 
were buried here in this graveyard in a common 
trench, where they should await happier days for a 
more suitable interment. From that day — so sad, 
and yet so glorious — until the present, there has 
been no attempt to fulfil the pledge given by General 
Warren, that these fallen patriots should have the 
care that was due them. From that day to this no 
stone has marked their burial-place, no inscription has 
informed the passing traveller that here lie buried the 
remains of those who died for country and for the 
rights of man. 

Thanks to the reverend and patriotic gentleman 
who spoke to us on tlie occasion that I have referred 
to, and who will speak to us to-day ; thanks also to 
the City Council, which responded with alacrity to 



CAMBRIDGE REVOLUTIONARY MEMORIAL. 13 

the suggestions of our friend, — we are no longer to 
rest under the stigma of having forgotten the services 
of the men who perished in that earliest contest, or 
of neglecting to mark the spot where their mortal 
remains were deposited. Early in the month of Sep- 
tember last, Alderman Parker, of the First Ward, 
offered an order, in the branch of which he is a mem- 
ber, instructing the Committee on the Soldiers' Monu- 
ment to procure and set up in this burial-ground a 
memorial stone to commemorate the deeds and the 
names of the Cambridge citizens who fell on the 19th 
of April, 1775. The order was unanimously adopted 
in both branches of the Government, and the Com- 
mittee proceeded to attend to the duty which had 
been imposed upon them. They selected a plain and 
simple shaft of Scotch granite, and caused a suitable 
inscription to be cut upon its face. They have placed 
it on the spot where the patriots were buried, and 
which, by a happy chance, is in full view from that 
whereon is erected the structure which commemorates 
the deeds and names of the Cambridge men who fell 
in the war of the Kebellion. 

"We are assembled here this afternoon to dedicate 
this Memorial Stone. As we read the inscription that 
is borne upon it, we are carried back in imagination 
to the days when our Republic was but a bright and 
beautiful vision of the future, and not an accomplished 
fact ; when our country had no national existence, 
but was still a dependency of the British Crown ; 
when no flag, brilliant with stars and beaming with 
stripes, floated on the breeze to stir the hearts of men 



14 CAMBRIDGE REVOLUTIONARY MEMORIAL. 

with recollections of past victories ; when no strains of 
martial music encouraged the brave or inspired the 
timid with valor ; when the battles were fought by an 
undisciplined yeomanry against the trained soldiers of 
Europe ; and when to die for one's country was to be 
hurried with but little of ceremony, unshrouded and 
uncoffined, into an unmarked grave. But if these 
things were true of the " time that tried men's souls," 
let us, who came here nearly a century later, pour out 
a measure of gratitude all the more full and fervent. 
Let us, to whom the Republic is a splendid reality ; 
who are citizens of one of the most powerful nations 
on the face of the globe ; whose eyes are gladdened 
by the sight of that starry banner, which is the symbol 
of a country which has proved itself impregnable 
against the assaults of foreign war and of domestic 
treason, — let us remember with pride and thankful- 
ness the services of those who laid the foundation 
stones of this grand temple of American Liberty. 

The 19th of April was a sad day for Cambridge. 
She had lost six of her sons in a single battle, 
and this when her population was only sixteen 
hundred souls. Now she numbers forty thousand, 
and a loss of one hundred and fifty in a battle would 
be in the same proportion as was a loss of six in the 
year 1775. It was a sad day ; but death must, sooner 
or later, come to all. It has come to all who saw that 
struggle. The soldiers, the yeomanry, the agonized 
women, even the children, — all are gone. But there 
are six names that survive, and will survive for many 
a century yet to come. The names of the men who 



CAMBRIDGE EEVOLUTIONARY MEMORIAL. 15 

fell, and who received so unworthy a burial, have 
been preserved, and are now recorded imperishably. 
To-day we remember them, and are thankful that they 
lived and fought. Soon we, too, shall pass away ; but 
our successors will take our places, and will bring 
here the tribute of grateful hearts. The stately 
Monument which adorns the Common, and the hum- 
bler shaft which we have placed here, both speak to 
us of patriotism, of devotion to duty, and of self-sacri- 
fice in the cause of human rights. May they carry 
down to the latest posterity the story of heroic valor 
in the cause of liberty, of justice, and of nationality 
created and preserved. 

"When the Mayor had finished, the choir sung the fol- 
lowing original hymn, contributed by Mrs. A. C. Wel- 
lington : 

Borne on the ear in accents low 

From recollection's tide, 
Thought wafts us scenes of early days 

Which courage beautified. 

In solemn consecration met, 

We tune our melody ; 
Grateful petitions we would raise. 

And lift our hearts on high. 

In mem'ry of that beauteous crown, 

A patriot's just reward, 
Prized be the fair inheritance 

Bequeathed to us to guard ! 

Our fathers fought the glorious fight 

At Liberty's dear shrine ; 
Affection's tendrils lovingly 

About this spot shall twine. 



16 CAMBRIDGE REVOLUTIONARY MEMORIAL. 

The Rev. Alexander McKenzie then delivered the address 
which is appended in full. When he had conclitded, the 
ceremonies were closed bj singing the following lines, com- 
posed for the occasion by Miss Sarah S. Jacobs : 



Now pride and song, and joy and praise, 
Above these graves of otlier days ! — 
Oh, First of our Immortal Dead ! 
Whose sons but follow where you led. 

We come to honor, not to weep ; 

Break not, to-day, your solemn sleep. 

Not with war's pomp and mailed breast 
They fought, beneath this sod who rest ; 
Like David, with his sling and stone, 
Their trust was in the Lord alone. 

Their nameless grave has waited long : 
Its record now make firm and strong. 

Swift glide the years with restless haste : 
The crumbling granites bend and waste ; 
Yet memory shall, nor changed nor cold, 
This spot in grateful reverence hold ; 
And proudly show, on either hand, 
Who died to save our native land. 



ADDRESS, 



BY THE REV. ALEXANDER McKENZIE. 



Mr. Mayor and Grentlemen of the City Crovernment ; 
Fellow - Citizens : 

The doings of this day, interesting and honorable 
in themselves, have associations which elevate them 
to a place of high dignity and renown. We have 
reared this memorial structure to preserve the names 
and deeds of a few of those who fell in defence 
of the liberty of the people at the beginning of 
the long contest which made us a nation. The 
heroism and devotion of our illustrious sires, which 
proved the groundwork of our Republic, have long 
been celebrated in song and story, and recorded 
among the achievements in which the world glories. 
Humble was the part which these six men bore in 
those eventful times ; but they stood in their lot, and 
with a spirit which was equal to more conspicuous 
performance helped to usher in the grand series of 
events which changed the destiny of the land, and 
affected interests as wide as humanity. Their fall 
counted for more than the deaths of many men in a 
less important time. We have done well to recog- 



18 CAMBRIDGE REVOLUTIONARY MEMORIAL, 

nize in our national history that which was done on 
the day we have marked upon this stone, and to give 
it a foremost place. Concord, Lexington, Menotomy, 
have long ago erected monuments in memory of those 
who made then* names renowned and that day 
immortal. At this centre of our early Revolutionary 
life should rise our column with a kindred purpose, 
that these men who have deserved well may no 
longer lie in unmarked graves, but be permitted to 
tell from the sculptured stone to every passer-by, to 
those whose homes surround this spot, to the stranger 
from beyond the seas, on what day and for what 
cause they rendered up their lives. 

The place is well chosen. This stone stands very 
near the spot where were buried the three who 
belonged in this part of the town. Trusting to the 
memory of some who had received the tradition of 
their burial from the lips of a previous generation, 
and after careful examination of the ground with 
results which confirmed the tradition, we may con- 
sider it established, with a close approximation to 
certainty, that we have found and marked the place 
where these men were laid. When we remember 
the impossibility of determining where others, were 
buried whose names and virtues we hold in rever- 
ence, it is cause for congratulation that we have been 
able so clearly to mark this resting-place. A few 
years more, and it could not have been done. Our 
tardy homage is prudently paid at this time. But it 
is not for this reason alone that the place is well- 
chosen. Here are lying the mortal remains of many 



CAMBRIDGE REVOLUTIONARY MEMORIAL. 19 

of our venerated dead. Somewhere in this field of 
graves is all that is left of the bodily part of Thomas 
Shepard, who did as much as any man of his time to 
make Cambridge what it is to-day. Here have been 
laid many of the Presidents of Harvard College, and 
many others who were distinguished in different avo- 
cations. In the turbulent times of the Revolution 
some found rest here where no sound of war could 
reach them. We linger at the humble stones which 
mark the places where two young men were laid with 
pains and tears. John Hughes and John Stearns 
have almost the same epitaph: "He died in his 
country's cause ; " " He died in the service of his 
country; 1775." 

The monument we dedicate to-day stands before 
the imposing pile we so lately consecrated to its work, 
which rises from the plain whose very soil is rich in 
historic associations, and perpetuates the memory of 
the valor and patriotism of the soldiers and sailors 
of Cambridge who died in the service of their coun- 
try in the war for the maintenance of the Union. 
Truly the stone which now comes to increase the 
attractions of this ancient burying-ground stands in a 
glorious place. 

The day which has been chosen for this service 
of patriotism and gratitude fills a marked line in 
our national annals. On the 3d of November, 1783, 
the American Army, which had accomplished its 
purpose and established the land in liberty, was 
disbanded. On the 20th of the preceding January 
a general treaty had been signed at Paris. It reminds 



20 CAMBRIDGE EEVOLUTIONARY MEMORIAL. 

US of the change in the modes of communication 
with Europe to read that it was more than two 
months before the news of peace reached this coun- 
try. On the 2d of November Washington made his 
parting address to the armies of the United States. 
" Never," says one who was present at the breaking 
up of the army, " never can that melancholy day be 
forgotten when friends, companions for seven long 
years in joy and in sorrow, were torn asunder without 
the hope of ever meeting again, and with prospects 
of a miserable subsistence in future." On the anni- 
versary of the day which thus closed the war of the 
Revolution we dedicate a Monument to the memory 
of men who fell on the day which began it. We 
bring together events which our national life and his- 
tory have already united. The story of those early 
days has been often told. AVe shall not grow weary 
of it till we have forgotten its meaning and ceased 
to be thankful to those who dared and achieved so 
much. The New-England colonists were English- 
men, with English hearts and hands. They loved 
liberty, and cherished the recollection of men who 
were willing to be exiled for its sake, and in their 
turn were ready to defend it with their lives. They 
were loyal men, but they never would be slaves. 
Free principles had grown with their growth. When 
their prosperity provoked the jealousy of the mother- 
land, and created fears that the Colonies might at 
length claim independence, efforts were made in Eng- 
land to overturn their political arrangements, and to 
check their rising manufactures and trade. In justice 



CAMBKIDGE REVOLUTIONAEY MEMORIAL. 21 

to the mother-land it ^should be remembered that it 
was only a portion of the ministerial party in Eng- 
land who projected the measures which oppressed 
the Colonies and led to their revolution. There were 
men in high places in England who deserve our admi- 
ration and gratitude for their bold assertion of our 
colonial rights. But baser counsels prevailed.* In 
1774 the Boston Port Bill went into operation, with 
fasting and prayer on the part of the people, with 
the tolling of bells and prevailing signs of mourning. 
Other acts were passed in Parliament which deprived 
the colonists of privileges which they had enjoyed. 
The interests of the people were protected by the 
Committees of Correspondence which they had chosen, 
imder whose direction a meeting of delegates was 
held in Faneuil Hall in August, 1774. "The result 
was a Provincial Congress, hostile preparation, a clash 
of arms, and a general rising of the people. To the 
people of Middlesex County belongs the honor of 
taking the lead in carrying out the bold plan resolved 
upon." Four days after the meeting in Faneuil Hall 
another was held at Concord. The resolves of that 
meeting ended in this declaration, " No danger shall 
affright, no difficulties shall intimidate us ; and if, in 
support of our rights, we are called to encounter even 
death, we are yet undaunted, sensible that he can 
never die too soon who lays down his life in support 

* For historical information I wish to acknowledge my indebted- 
ness to Frothingham's " History of the Siege of Boston," and to the 
Ad(h-ess of Rev. Samuel Abbot Smith, entitled " West Cambridge on the 
Nineteenth of April, 1775." 



22 CAMBRIDGE REVOLUTIONARY MEMORIAL. 

of the laws and liberties of hi^ country." The spirit 
which prevailed here in those times is still to be seen 
in our Town Records. At the time of the Stamp Act 
the Town voted that their Representatives should do 
nothing to aid in its operation, but use their utmost 
endeavors to secure its repeal ; and " that this vote be 
recorded in the Town Books, that the children yet 
unborn may see the desire that their ancestors had 
for their freedom and happiness." 

In 1766 the Representative of the Town in the 
General Court was instructed to join in respectful 
addresses to " our most Gracious Sovereign," testify- 
ing to the loyalty of the people. He was also to be 
watchful of any future danger to the Colonies which 
might arise from the action of Parliament. In 1772 
it was voted, " That a Committee be appointed to 
write to the Committee of the Town of Boston, to 
acknowledge the vigilance and care discovered by 
the Metropolis for the public rights and liberties, 
acquainting them that this Town will heartily concur 
in all salutary and constitutional measures for the 
redress of those intolerable grievances which threaten 
and, if continued, must overthrow the happy civil Con- 
stitution of this Province." Two years afterwards it 
was voted, " That the Committee of Correspondence 
be a Committee to receive the donations that may be 
given by the Inhabitants of this Town for the relief 
of our distressed brethren in the Town of Boston, 
now suffering for the cause of all America." Two 
years later still, 1776, May. 27, the Representative of 
the Town was instructed that, if the Honorable Con- 



CAMBEIDGE EEVOLUTIONAKY MEMORIAL. 23 

gress should for the safety of the Colonies declare 
them independent of the Kingdom of Great Britain, 
" We, the said Inhabitants, will solemnly engage 
with our lives and fortunes to support them in the 
measure." This was the Declaration of Independence 
made, in advance of the general action, by the people 
of Cambridge. 

The example of Middlesex was followed by other 
counties. As the determined utterance of Faneuil 
Hall was thus repeated on every side, it was plain 
that the time for collision had come. General Gage 
began at once to fortify Boston Neck. That town of 
patriot merchants and mechanics, lawyers and divines, 
found itself watched by a hostile fleet, and burdened 
with an army whose presence meant intimidation and 
oppression. But Boston was brave and decided. The 
storm of indignation against the Stamp Act, the fierce 
opposition to fresh attempts to impose taxes, the affray 
with English soldiers in 1770, the casting overboard of 
the taxed tea in 1773, show something of the temper 
of the people. In 1774 the first American Conti- 
nental Congress assembled, a declaration of rights 
was adopted, and a suspension of all commercial 
intercourse with Great Britain recommended. About 
the same time a Provincial Congress was organized in 
Massachusetts which made arrangements for a levy 
of twelve thousand men in this State, one-fourth of 
whom were to be minute-men. It was more and 
more evident that the appeal to arms was to be made. 
Minute-men, trained for instant service whenever they 
were called, began to spring up through the State ; 



24 CAMBEIDGE EEVOLUTIONARY MEMORIAL. 

and there were other preparations for the impending 
conflict. Gladly would the patriots have averted the 
war if they could otherwise have maintained their 
fixed resolve, " America must and will be free." 

By the middle of April, 1775, Gage had about four 
thousand men in Boston, when he resolved to make a 
secret expedition and destroy the colonial magazines 
at Concord, as the provincial stores at Medford had 
already been plundered. The preparations which 
were made attracted the notice of the watchful patri- 
ots. Secret plots came to light. On the 18th, the 
Committees of Safety and of Supplies, which had 
been organized for the public service, were on the 
alert, making ready for the anticipated events. They 
met at Wetherby's tavern in Menotomy. A party of 
British officers, sent out to guard the roads leading 
into the country, dined the same day at Cambridge. 
At night, two lanterns, hung from the steeple of the 
North Church in Boston, telegraphed across the river 
the tidings of the movement of the British troops 
and the direction they were taking. The sexton who 
lighted the lanterns was afterwards arrested by the 
British at a funeral, and upon examination con- 
demned to death. A threat of retaliation made by 
Washington procured his respite, and he was finally 
exchanged. Richard Devens, of Charlestown, sent 
to Menotomy and Lexington the news of the advance 
of the British. Dr. Warren sent Paul Revere, the 
Boston mechanic, and William Dawes, to alarm the 
country. Revere crossed the river to Charlestown, 
while Dawes went out through Roxbury. They met 



CAlVnBRIDGE EEVOLUTIONARY MEMORIAL. 25 

at Lexington, where Hancock and Adams were in 
waiting. Tlie messengers hurried on to arouse the 
people beyond. As the news spread, the people 
prepared for the emergency which was upon them. 
Many secured their most valuable possessions, in some 
cases making their wells their treasury. The women 
and children, the old and infirm, were removed to 
secure places. The men awaited their foes. 

Meanwhile, the British troops, numbering about 
eight hundred, and commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel 
Smith, about ten o'clock in the evening embarked at 
the foot of Boston Common, and landed at Phipps's 
farm, now Lechmere Point. They struck across the 
marshes to the old road from Charlestown to West 
Cambridge, and proceeded on their way. They soon 
found that the country was alarmed. Many persons 
saw them and heard them. It was almost two o'clock 
in the clear, chilly morning of the 19th of April, when 
they reached West Cambridge. Vice-President Gerry, 
and Colonels Lee and Orne who were with him, all 
of whom were members of the Committee of Safety, 
very nearly fell into their hands. At the centre of 
the town the troops halted. As it was evident that 
their task was larger than they had anticipated, a 
messenger was sent back to Boston to ask fojc re- 
inforcements. A detachment of six companies of 
light infantry, under command of Major Pitcairn, was 
ordered forward to Concord. These pressed on, 
arresting every man they met. One of their prisoners 
escaping carried to Lexington the first certain news 
of tlieir approach. Pitcairn found some sixty or 



26 CAMBRIDGE REVOLUTIONAEY MEMORIAL. 

seventy of the militia drawn iTp near the Lexington 
meeting-house, and with them about forty spectators, 
a few of whom were armed. The British troops 
rushed on, shouting and firing ; and the officers cried 
out: "Ye villains! ye rebels! disperse! Lay down 
your arms ! Why don't you lay down your arms ? '' 
Finding the demand unheeded, they fired, doing no 
harm. They fired again, and men fell. Then the 
militia, who had been ordered not to fire unless they 
were fired upon, returned the assault of the troops. 
Kesistance was so clearly in vain, that the militia 
withdrew, fired upon as long as they remained in 
sight. Seven were killed and ten wounded on the 
American side. The British, with huzzas over their 
easy victory, hastened on to Concord. They might 
shout, but they had begun a work whose end would 
be their own undoing. There was cause for rejoicing, 
but it was not with them. The prophetic vision of 
Samuel Adams looked through the dark days which 
were at hand to the exceeding light and liberty be- 
yond, and he uttered the lofty exclamation which we 
have written in granite : " Oh, what a glorious morn- 
ing is this ! " 

It was a short march to Concord ; but there the work 
of destruction which had brought the British from Bos- 
ton met with small success. They broke open about 
sixty barrels of flour, disabled a few cannon, cut down 
the liberty-pole, set the court-house on fire ; but the 
greater part of the military stores, which had been 
collected at Concord had been previously concealed, 
or removed to other places out of the rcacli of the 



CAMBRIDGE REVOLUTIONARY MEMORIAL. 27 

enemy. The tidings of the approach of the British 
had brought to Concord the minute-men from the 
neighboring towns. The surrounding communities 
were inflamed with enthusiasm, convinced that the 
hour had come when they must defend their rights 
with their lives. The training which the people had 
received, in their contests with the Indians and the 
French, fitted them for the sterner work now laid 
upon them. Muskets which had seen service at Louis- 
burg and Quebec came forth to new duty ; drums 
which had followed the British flag to honorable 
battle beat along the country roads which led to the 
scene of peril. The fathers lived again in their sons. 
The patriots and a portion of the invaders met at the 
river by the North Bridge. The British fired upon 
the people. The guns of the minute-men answered 
them. Men fell on both sides. The conflict was 
brief, Avhen the detachment of the British retreated 
upon their main forces, pursued by the provincials. 
Meanwhile the number of the colonial force was 
increasing. The British acted upon their discretion, 
and, having hastily buried their dead in the public 
square, about noon began their march back to Boston. 
It was a perilous march. From out the woods at the 
side of the road, from behind trees and walls, the 
murderous fire poured upon the retreating troops. 
Panic took the place of order. Many began to run. 
The officers went in front and threatened with death 
every man who advanced. But nothing could have 
averted surrender or utter destruction but the timely 
arrival of the reinforcements which had been re- 



28 CAMBRIDGE REVOLUTIONARY MEMORIAL. 

quested. These formed a hollow square, and received 
the weary, affrighted men. " They were so much 
exhausted with fatigue," says a British historian, "that 
they were obliged to lie down for rest on the ground, 
their tongues hanging out of their mouths like those 
of dogs after a chase." Dr. Warren and General 
Heath were busy directing the movements of the 
militia and encouraging them in their grand under- 
taking. Later in the day, in WQst Cambridge, Warren 
had a pin struck out of the hair of his earlock. So near 
did death come to him before Bunker Hill had given 
him his riper fame. Lord Percy had come, with some 
eighteen hundred veteran troops and two field-pieces, 
to succor the earlier detachment, now fugitives. He 
came through Roxbury, showing his confidence 
by the tune of Yankee Doodle, to which his troops 
marched, and disturbing the country through which 
he passed. The selectmen of Cambridge had taken 
up the planks of the Great Bridge in what is now 
Brighton Street. In order to prevent the retreat of 
the British in that du'ection, Warren had directed the 
militia to use the planks as a barricade. But as they 
had been left on this side of the river, it was an easy 
matter for the British to replace them, when the troops 
passed over, hurried along our North Avenue, and 
met their defeated brethren near the Lexington meet- 
ing-house. 

In connection with this expedition is an incident 
more to the credit of our town. A convoy of pro- 
visions found greater difficulty in crossing the bridge, 
and became detached from the main army. An ex- 



CAMBRIDGE REVOLUTIONAEY MEMORIAL. 29 

press was sent from Old Cambridge to Menotomy, 
announcing the coming of these supplies, and a few 
men, too old for active service in the field, posted 
themselves behind a wall to await their arrival. The 
convoy came, and was called upon to surrender. The 
drivers whipped up their horses. The provincials 
fired, killing several horses, and perhaps two men, 
when the drivers jumped from their places and fled. 
The wagons were secured and plundered. The drivers 
are said to have surrendered themselves to an old 
woman whom they met, whose protection they begged. 
Whereupon there went the rounds of the English 
papers belonging to the oj)position that interesting 
sum in the Rule of Three : "If one old Yankee 
woman can take six grenadiers, how many soldiers 
will it require to conquer America 1 " " So to West 
Cambridge belongs the honor of making the first 
capture of provisions and stores, and also of prison- 
ers, in the American Revolution." 

The march of the British troops back to Boston was 
resumed. They committed much destruction, pillaging 
and burning buildings, and grossly abusing individuals 
who fell in their power. They were stung by defeat, 
full of anger and revenge, glad to let their passions 
loose, though the helpless were the chief sufferers. It 
was a memorable retreat, and many sad incidents of it 
are preserved in the family traditions of those who 
lived along its route. The skirmishing in West Cam- 
bridge was fierce and bloody. The people were 
excited by the outrages committed by the troops, who 
on their part were contending with enemies often 



30 CAMBRIDGE EEVOLUTIONARY MEMORIAL. 

invisible, and were struggling for life in the midst of 
disgrace. The British took the road around Prospect 
Hill. They were embarrassed by the wounded they 
were obliged to carry. The provincials followed them 
closely, and were increasing in numbers. The British 
came down the Cambridge road to Charlestown Neck 
almost upon the run, so anxious were they to get 
within the protection of their ships of war. When 
Charlestown Common was reached, the pursuit was 
stopped. The reports of the day show, as the Ameri- 
can losses, forty-nine killed, thirty-nine wounded, five 
missing. On the part of the British there were 
seventy- three killed, one hundred and seventy-four 
wounded, twenty-six missing, most of whom were 
prisoners. The enlistment-rolls of the minute com- 
pany of West Cambridge, comprising probably the 
names of all the men in that precinct of suitable age, 
are still preserved. They contain fifty names, — one- 
half of which are marked Cambridge. Benjamin 
Locke was captain of the company which did good 
service at Lexington. 

It is impossible to take out of the doings of the 
day the share in the good work which belongs to this 
part of Cambridge. We may be content to feel that 
those who were before us were united to their neigh- 
bors in spirit and in deed. The desolation of the 
town, the deserted wives and children, tell us where 
the men were. It is pleasant for us to remember that 
our domain was wider then than now, and with a 
worthy pride we claim the glory of Menotomy for 
the praise of Cambridge. There is something in these 



CAMBRIDGE REVOLUTIONARY MEMORIAL. 31 

ancient associations, in the brave deeds which have 
been wrought out under the good old name, within 
the old municipality, which creates and encourages 
the hope that our friends who have gone out from us 
will yet be numbered with us again, that our heir- 
looms of historic places and achievements may be a 
common possession. It was in recognition of our 
former estate, and with pride in it, that, when called 
upon to furnish the inscription for the monument we 
have now erected, I recommended that the names of 
three men who are buried in the old Second Precinct 
should be inscribed upon it. Arlington may guard their 
dust. Cambridge will overleap the narrow brook, and 
claim them for her own. 

That was a terrible night here which preceded the 
day of which we speak. Hannah Winthrop has 
written something of " the horrors of that midnight 
cry, preceding the battle of Lexington." It shows us 
Cambridge. " A few hours, with the dawning day, 
convinced us the bloody purpose was executing ; the 
platoon-firing assuring us the rising sun must witness 
the bloody carnage. Not knowing what the event 
would be at Cambridge at the return of these bloody 
ruffians, and seeipg another brigade despatched to 
the assistance of the former, looking with the ferocity 
of barbarians, it seemed necessary to retire to some 
place of safety. We set out, not knowing whither 
we went. We were directed to a place called Fresh 
Pond ; but what a distressed house did we find it ! — 
filled with women whose husbands had gone forth to 
meet the assailants, seventy or eighty of these (with 



32 CAMBRIDGE REVOLUTIONARY MEMORIAL. 

numberless infant children) weeping and agonizing 
for the fate of their husbands. In addition to these 
signs of distress, we were for some time in sight of 
the battle ; the glittering instruments of death pro- 
claiming by an incessant fire that much blood must 
be shed, that many widowed and orphaned ones must 
be left as monuments of British barbarity." It was 
unsafe to return to their homes, and they were hastily 
sent to Andover. " Thus we began our pilgrimage, 
alternately walking and riding, the road filled with 
frighted women and children. But what added greatly 
to the horrors of the scene was our passing through 
the bloody field at Menotomy, which was strewed with 
the mangled bodies." Thus writes one to whom the 
deeds and sufferings we recount were a present, per- 
sonal reality. That assemblage of affrighted women 
bears plain testimony to the part the men of Cam- 
bridge were taking. Her vivid portraiture brings 
before us one side of the scenes in which these men, 
whose names we have cut in stone, bore a part, and 
reminds us of the agony and anxiety of those to whom 
they were bound by the closest ties, — who watched 
their going out and waited for their coming back, 
who lost sight of the forms which were so dear to 
them beneath this freshly hallowed sod. There is a 
glimpse of the anxiety and commotion of the night 
which closed upon that glorious though fated day, in 
the haste with which our three men were buried. 
The son of John Hicks, a boy fourteen years old, was 
sent by his mother in the afternoon to look for his 
father who had been absent most of the day. He 



CAMBRIDGE REVOLUTIONARY MEMORIAL. 33 

found him lying by the side of the road dead. Marcy 
and Richardson were near him. He procured assist- 
ance, and the bodies were lifted into a wagon and 
brought here for burial. But who had leisure for 
funeral rites'? The dead alone were safe, done with 
duty. The living had the living to care for. One 
grave received them all, as with patriotic indignation 
against the tyranny and cruelty which hurried them 
to their death, with admiration and affection for their 
devotion to the common weal, they were given to the 
keeping of their mother-earth. The son of Moses 
Richardson, standing by, thought it was too bad that 
the earth should be thrown directly upon their faces, 
and getting into the trench he spread the large cape 
of his father's coat over his face. 

" Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note, 
As his corse to the rampart we hurried ; 
Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot 
O'er the grave where our hero we buried. 

"No useless coffin enclosed his breast, 

Not in sheet nor in shroud we wound him ; 
But he lay, like a warrior, taking his rest, 
With his martial cloak around him ! 

" Slowly and sadly we laid him down, 

From the field of his lame fresh and gory ; 
We carved not a line, and we raised not a stone, 
But we left him alone with his glory." 

The day has come when a grateful posterity blesses 
their memory and honors their rest. 

It seems strange to us that veteran British troops 
should have been defeated by the irregular forces 
opposed to them. We must acknowledge the pur- 



34 CAMBRIDGE REVOLUTIONARY MEMORIAL. 

pose and working of Him who first brought our 
Fathers to these shores and made them a people. We 
must recognize the power there is in a good cause. 

" What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted ! 
Thrice is he arm'd that hath his quarrel just." 

The conviction that they were fighting for hberty, 
for the honor of their land, the safety of their homes, 
the inheritance of their children, gave them a spirit 
which in itself was discipline, and a daring which was 
a good substitute for men. It has been finely said, 
" The people always conquer. They always must 
conquer. . . . God never gave, and never will give, 
a final triumph over a virtuous and gallant people, 
resolved to be free." It must be kept in mind, also, 
tliat they were in some measure prepared for their 
work. We have seen that it was by slow degrees 
that war approached and became inevitable. Men 
banded themselves together in anticipation of the 
time of need. Militia and minute-men were placed 
in the best posture of defence. The warlike training 
of other times was made to serve in the new exi- 
gencies. It is true that Washington was disap- 
pointed at the condition of the American Army when 
he assumed command. There were not many more 
than fourteen thousand men under arms against the 
well-appointed British troops. Even to his eye they 
seemed but raw militia. Yet there was more of train- 
ing than appeared, more of system and agreement. 
The fighting on the 19th of April was irregular; but 
it was with one purpose, and with the help of organi- 



CAMBRIDGE REVOLUTIONARY MEMORIAL. oD 

zation. There were leaders and followers. Lord 
Percy said " he never saw any thing equal to the 
intrepidity of the minute-men." There was skill in 
the leaders which carried the courage to a successful 
issue. The British fought that day, especially on 
their retreat, not alone against actual men, but against 
imaginary enemies. Men seemed to drop from the 
clouds. Any peaceful stone-wall might be a fortress, 
and the quiet grove mask a battery. One old gray- 
headed man of Woburn figures in the stories of the 
time, who rode a fine white horse after the flying 
troops, and dismounting within gunshot would send 
his sure bullet to the mark. When he fired, a man 
fell. They came to cry at sight of him, " Look out, 
there is the man on the white horse ! " Even the multi- 
tudes of the old and infirm, of women and children, 
looking down from the hillsides, were transformed 
to their frightened imagination into hosts of armed 
men threatening their extinction. Amid the unknown 
terrors which beset these strangers in a strange land, 
with lurking foes on every side, with all the country 
pouring its forces against them, it is hardly strange 
that they lost hope and daring, and fled in panic and 
alarm. 

This day would have been memorable in itself; 
but it has justly attained a wider and higher renown 
because it opened the War of the Revolution. Pur- 
poses had passed into deeds. Both patriots and 
invaders had gone too far to recede and leave things 
as they had been. Blood had been shed. A spirit 
had been evoked which could not be put down. The 



36 CAMBRIDGE REVOLUTIONARY MEMORIAL. 

end praises the beginning. We have become so accus- 
tomed to immense armies, that the men engaged on 
that glorious April day seem to us very few. Yet 
they bore no mean proportion to the whole force of 
the war of our Independence, and their endeavor 
and their deeds were large. The prowess which was 
displayed was the earnest of the persistence and valor 
which many weary years could not exhaust. The 
success which crowned the opening struggle held the 
presage of grander results which were to follow and 
give us a name among the nations of the earth. We 
share in the glory of the after-time which our Fathers 
helped bring to the land ; and the places among 
which we move day by day were the scenes of many 
of the great events of our heroic age. Yet proud 
as we are, in common with all the country, of the 
accomplishments of the later times, we shall cherish 
with fond, personal interest the thrilling memories 
of the battle of Concord, Lexington, and Cambridge. 
There has been power in the names. They have 
done much to create and foster a national feeling. 
Not territory, laws, institutions, alone unite us, but the 
fields where our Fathers fought, the days they illu- 
mined with their valor, the names they made im- 
mortal. Our national estate is partly in our national 
history. Blot out our past, and we should be a 
different and a poorer people, though we kept all our 
material and intellectual wealth. We need our heroes. 
We shall never be done with our honored dead. Sud 
will be the thne when we cease to be instructed by 
their example, inspirited by every thought of them. 



CAMBRIDGE REVOLUTIONARY MEMORIAL. 37 

No wide expanse of domain, no annexation of new 
countries, could enrich us so largely as the narrow 
fields whereon our liberty was bought with blood. 
Plymouth Rock is better for us than a mountain of 
gold. Through the war which so lately closed behind 
jus the force of the earlier contest for liberty was felt. 
Out of the struggles which made us a nation passed 
an energy to keep us a nation. Do you not recall the 
words spoken by our martyred President at his first 
inauguration when men were threatening rebellion 
and dissolution ^. " The mystic cord of memory, 
stretching from every battle-field and patriot grave to 
every living heart and hearth-stone all over this broad 
land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union." It 
rolled on through the smoke of battle, amid the roar 
of artillery ; but blending in that chorus as it was 
sung over the land, over the sea, were the names of 
Concord and Bunker Hill, were the deeds of Avhich 
every child learns to boast, and which every man 
recounts with honest pride. 

It is fitting that this stone should confront our more 
imposing monument. Smaller is this, few the names 
upon it, modest its pretension ; yet it may stand boldly 
before the people, and overlook the ancient training- 
field, and face the pile which towers above it. For 
out of that which these men and their associates 
accomplished rose the nation which those men de- 
fended and preserved. It was one cause. Ninety 
years are little in the world's history. We may write 
on both monuments, These men died for our 
country. 



38 CAMBRIDGE REVOLUTIONARY MEMORIAL. 

Of all the treasured names of that land from which 
has come the beautiful stone we have now reared and 
dedicated, none is dearer to us than his who has writ- 
ten thus of Old Mortality : " He considered himself 
as fulfilling a sacred duty, while renewing to the eyes 
of posterity the decaying emblems of the zeal and 
sufferings of their forefathers, and thereby trimming, 
as it were, the beacon-light, which was to warn future 
generations to defend their religion even unto blood." 

Take Scotland's message with Scotland's stone! 
As we revive the zeal and sufferings of our fore- 
fathers, and write them plainly before the world, 
trimming our beacon-light, let it be that w^e may 
defend the liberties they have bequeathed, in the 
spirit with which they won them for us, and transmit 
them a legacy unimpaired, improved with our doings, 
for the blessing of all who shall come after us. 



NOTE. 



In the effort to find the precise place in which the three men of 
Cambridge were buried, there was found a piece of cloth, deeply marked 
with reddish-brown stains, which was thought to be a piece of the cloth- 
ing of one of the men, and to be stained with his blood. A portion of 
this cloth was submitted to Professor Horsford for his critical exami- 
nation ; and the results at which he arrived are stated in the foUoAving 
letter : 

Cambridge, Dec. 22, 1870. 
Rkv. Alexander McKenzie : 

My dear Sir, — The interesting relic, in regard to which you have 
asked ray jutlgraent, has been subjected to such examination and chemical 
tests as naturall}'' suggested themselves. 

It is, in the first place, a frail little piece of dull reddish-brown cloth, about 
four inches by five, such as might have been spun and woven in the year 
1775. One margin presents the even edge of warp, as if it had been cut with 
sliears as linen is cut, and not torn as cotton cloth usually is. It presents 
occasional broken folds and small holes where fragments have dropped out, — 
the record of decay. More than two-thirds of the surface is marked by dark 
reddish stains. 

As tradition tells the story, this fragment of cloth may have been part of 
the shirt or handkerchief that absorbed the blood of one of the minute-men 
of Cambridge who fell on the day of the battle of Lexington, and in the exi- 
gency of the times had been buried in the suit he wore. He had gone out 
after Lord Percy had marched up the North Avenue, and had been shot by a 
flanking party of the returning British army. This tradition is fully con- 
firmed by my examination. 

Tiie microscope shows the fibre of the cloth to be linen. The portions of 
the cloth which are free from stain, when burned, give the odor common to 
the smoke of simple vcyetabln Jibre, as cotton or linen. liut the portions wliich 
are stained, when burned, give the odor of burning uniindl matter, as of f'enthers 
or hair or liorn. Now, if these stains are stains of blood, which contains 
Jihrine, which is of the same nature as hair or horn, such odor might be 
expected to arise from burning. In a dry, sandy soil, dried fibrine would resist 



40 CAMBRIDGE REVOLUTIONARY MEMORIAL. 

decay quite as long as the linen fibre or as the woollen fibre of the outer 
garment which was found with this fragment. The blood and its fibrine had 
had ample time to dry before the body was found. How long such dried 
animal matter would resist decay is illustrated in the mummies of Mexico 
and Peru. The structure of the minute corpuscles of the blood would be 
likely to perish, and the microscope does not reveal them ; but the chemical 
constituents imbedded in, and a part of, the fibrine would remain ; aud for 
certain of them we have, in chemistry, very delicate tests. Two of them, 
iron and phosphoric acid, I looked for, and found without difficulty. Soda, 
whicli is a constituent of the blood, is, iiowever, also present in all soils, and 
in the dust of every apartment ; and so its recognition in the cloth would 
have little weight. Periiaps the same objection applies in some degree to the 
iron. But a porous, sandy soil would yield no evidence of phosphoric acid to 
such tests as I employed. 

Taking these results into account, in connection with the circumstance 
that the little piece of blotched linen cloth was found with other cloth of wool- 
len, — was found with human bones, in a dry, sandy soil, at but a short depth 
from the surface, in the very place where a gentleman, who died a few years 
ago at great age, said he had assisted in burying the body of his father in the 
clothes which he wore when he fell on the fatal day, — taking all these con- 
siderations into account, there can, I think, be no doubt that I have before me 
veritable blood of the first that was shed in the great war of the Revolution. 

I am very truly yours, 

E. N. HORSFORD. 



We may be confident, it appears, that we have an interesting relic 
of the memorable day to whicli this publication refers, and are permitted 
to look ujion blood which was shed in defence of our liberties. 



Alexander McKenzie. 

Cambridge, 22d December, 1870. 



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